Long day’s journey

President Obama’s second inaugural address is now available online. It provides a roadmap to the expansion of the administrative state that Obama intends to accomplish in his second term.

The work of the speech is to assimilate his now permanent campaign into the founding principles of the United States. It is therefore not as forthright as the Second Bill of Rights promulgated by FDR in 1944, but Obama is picking up where FDR left off with his own bad faith thrown in for good measure.

To make his case Obama wreaks serious intellectual destruction. The whole speech merits a close look. Here, for starters, is one paragraph toward the end of the speech with brief interruptions:

It is now our generation’s task to carry on what those pioneers began. For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts.

Equal opportunity is the law of the land. The implicit proposition that men and women do not earn equal pay is a lame shibboleth given new life during the campaign just past. What is he saying? We need something along the lines of a Federal Evaluation of Efforts Department to match performance with rewards.

Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.

Sorry, but our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law. It is historic to have Obama insert the contrary proposition into his speech on such a solemn occasion. He could do some good taking the cause of our gay brothers and sisters to the member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, but you can be sure that’s the last thing on his mind.

Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.

Oh, oh. I know I waited a little long in line to vote on election day. I felt good doing so, but I know it’s not my cause that Obama is championing. What is Obama talking about here? He must be setting us up for expedited and enhanced amplification of the Democratic vote through Internet voting or some such scheme, in the name of the Founding Fathers, of course.

Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity; until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.

I guess the engineers are “expelled” by expiration of their visas. I thought Obama took care of “bright young students” in the run-up to election day. This is a guy who really prefers not to make a reasoned argument. Demagogy comes naturally to him, even in an inaugural address.

Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.

I’ll let you translate that for yourself. I will only say (by way of translation) it’s going to be a long four years.